1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid container that supplies a predetermined liquid to a liquid consuming apparatus, for example, a liquid ejection head ejecting a liquid droplet.
2. Related Art
A liquid ejection head of a textile printing apparatus, a micro dispenser, or a commercial recording apparatus that requires ultrahigh printing quality receives a liquid ejected from a liquid container. However, if the liquid ejection head operates in a state where the liquid is not supplied, so-called idle printing occurs, and thus the liquid ejection head is likely to be damaged. In order to prevent this problem, it is necessary to monitor a liquid residual quantity in the container.
As the recording apparatus, there are suggested various apparatuses that have a liquid detection portion for detecting an ink in an ink cartridge as a liquid container.
The specific structure of such a liquid detection portion is described in Patent Document 1. In such a liquid detection portion, a liquid containing concave portion is formed at one of opposing flat surfaces of a flexible pouch containing the liquid, and a piezoelectric vibrator is disposed at outer surface of the concave portion. In addition, a rigid body is disposed at the other surface. Accordingly, an ink residual quantity is detected from a vibration state by a liquid amount (a depth of the liquid) between the rigid body and the piezoelectric vibrator.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-2004-136670
However, in the liquid detection portion described in Patent Document 1, the liquid residual quantity can be detected with relatively high accuracy, but the residual quantity of ink contained in the flexible pouch is affected by bending or wrinkle of the pouch since the rigid body moves according to the deformation of the flexible pouch. Accordingly, detection accuracy may be degraded.